Basic mixer question ..

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Howdy! 

I'm getting more enthused recording on GarageBand  since lockdown. All well and good . 
My mixer is a Behringer x1204 usb . 
I have 2 quesdtions that hopefully the cool folk  here could advise .

 

1) How do I pan left and right ? I know how to twist the buttons left and right . That's about it .

2) How do I add effects that are built into the mixer ?  I have bass effects pedals/ multi-storey etc but using the effects on 5he mixer may save  hassle plus be more fun and inspiring to use . I know how to select the effects , but not how to record with them. 
 

I think that's enough to be thinking about for now, so I'll leave it there ..

Thanks in advance 

 

[Dad3353]

9 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

...Thanks in advance 

Here's the manual, for starters ...

x1204 Manual ...

[Dad3353]

13 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

...I have 2 quesdtions that hopefully the cool folk  here could advise...

A little more information, please, to be able to reply sensibly..? I assume you're plugging the bass and/or mics into the mixer channels; are you recording using the USB into your DAW..? If that's the case, the signal sent to the PC is the same as the Main Mix. The Aux2 knob sends the channel signal to the internal Fx. The Fx To Main knob sends the Fx signal to the Main Mix (and thus to the USB. For each channel, the Pan knob sends the signal to the R and L outputs of the Main Mix, and thus to the USB.
Does this help..? 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Thanks for this DAD 😼

you always reply sensibly it has to be said 😺

As it's a usb mixer , it seems to go straight into my Mac no problem . 

So basically ( best way to describe );, I plug my bass/ synths / bass effects into the various inputs and sound seems to go into GarageBand and off I go . 
I'm not brave enough to use a mic , although I do have a nice one from maplins .

I'll look into your suggestions regarding aux etc . 
 

I was kind of wondering how I'd pan from left to right for example while actually recording bass at the same time . Sounds like a juggling act . What I have been doing so far, is just letting the noises I'm making go straight into GarageBand and just saving them into an iTunes file and uploading to sound cloud . That's too easy , but I'm missing out on cleaning up my act so to speak . Hope this explains things better 😼

[Happy Jack]

28 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

I was kind of wondering how I'd pan from left to right for example while actually recording bass at the same time . 

By and large, you don't.

Record everything first, with vox / guitar / bass / drums all being in the default, centre position.

Then do an initial 'gain stage' mix to get the various track levels to match, at least roughly. There's endless YouTube about this.

Then (in your DAW) go through each track in order and apply EQ (including pan) and compression as required.

Then go through each track again, this time adding FX as required.

Now you're in a position to do a decent mix.

 

[Jack]

As a happier version of me said above, what you're missing is the editing stage. There's many ways to skin this cat but the 'proper' way is to use as little of the mixer as possible. It's literally just for passing a roughly-the-right-volume version of your recording into Garageband and then you take it from there. The effects in software will be of immeasurably higher quality than the ones in the mixer anyway.

 

You'll be able to save your track as a project in Garageband so you can remix or edit weeks or years after the recording is done.

Edited April 8, 2021 by Jack

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

By and large, you don't...

 

1 hour ago, Jack said:

As a happier version of me said above, what you're missing is the editing stage...

You're both right, of course, but I've strange feeling that our friend Ray is recording everything, all at once, onto one single track in the DAW. I'm happy to be wrong, naturally, but that's the impression I have for now. The methods you're (correctly...) suggesting imply having each instrument on a different track, and editing/mixing/whatever after the event. I'm trusting Ray to get on to that step soon enough, although this has its own pitfalls and issues (playing to a pre-recorded track, latency, timing... whatever...). Slow but sure, I'd say, one step at a time.
@RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE : do you record onto separate tracks, or all on one..?

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Thankfully , even I have been using multiple tracks on GarageBand . I even manage to reduce the volume on the various tracks if needed . 
I even drag the track length of various bits here and there . Who would've thought ?😹

Recently , I actually started labelling what instrument is what on the various tracks .  Still learning something new 😸

I hope this  makes things clearer ..